How do I set separate screen time limits for my son's devices?

Question

My son has a laptop which he uses mostly for school and a gamer PC which - you wouldn't expect it - he doesn't use for school.

I want to set separate screen time limits for both devices but somehow Microsoft Family Safety does not allow for this. I've found various threads saying that I can select the devices separately and then delete one of the devices but no matter what I've tried, no luck. I don't want to remove my son from the Family Safety group as suggested in some places as that would defeat the purpose of the exercise.

I am the administrator of my family group and my son is a regular user. I use Windows 11 and my software is up to date. I'm keen to find a solution.

Here is the solution provided by Microsoft Copilot which doesn't work:

Quote

To unlink your son's devices in Microsoft Family Safety and set separate screen limitations, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Microsoft Family Safety account: Visit family.microsoft.com and sign in with your Microsoft account.
2. Access your child's profile: Click on your child's profile under the "Family members" section.
3. Go to Devices: In the top menu bar, click on "Devices" to see the list of devices associated with your child's account. [THIS DOESN'T WORK FOR ME]
4. Remove the devices: Click "Remove" next to the devices you want to unlink. This will remove them from your child's profile.
5. Set separate screen limitations: After unlinking the devices, you can set separate screen time limits for each device by going to the "Screen time" tab and adjusting the settings for each device individually.

If you encounter any issues, you can refer to the Microsoft Community for additional guidance.

Unquote

I've searched the Community for solutions but no luck so here I am posting the question. I will be most grateful if someone can help!

Many thanks,

Camiel

Answer 1

Hi CamielD,   Welcome to Microsoft Community.Thank you for posting your inquiry regarding Family Safety.

It's understandable that you'd feel frustrated when something as seemingly straightforward as setting separate screen time limits doesn’t align with your expectations. Unfortunately, the current design of Family Safety ties screen time limits to the account rather than individual devices, which can make setting separate limits challenging.

According to relevant articles, the "device" referred to by the Family Safety service in most cases refers to devices of different types/different platforms, such as Windows devices and Xbox devices.

Set screen time limits across devices - Microsoft Support

An alternative option is to create an additional new Microsoft account for your child and add that new account to your Family Safety Group. We understand that this may not be the most perfect option, but most members of the Answers community work as general support staff rather than product developers. This is the closest alternative we have access to at this time for that purpose.

Similar to you or other community members, we do not have dedicated channels or tools to communicate directly with the product team.

Your ideas and suggestions are essential to improve Microsoft products, but this forum is primarily a technical communication platform and the Microsoft development team will not be active in this forum.  If you wish, you can post a question or idea (with as much detail as possible, including pictures, copied videos, etc., if convenient) about Family Safety on the dedicated feedback platform, where a dedicated developer will pay attention and comment on your feedback.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.Best Regards,Kyo.Y - MSFT | Microsoft Community Technical Support